Language learning needs another taxonomy

In thier logic of categorizing forms of educational technology, Bruce and Levin (1996) point out the underlying characteristics of taxonomies: mirroring dominant pedagogical philosophy in given ages. In our age, it is gradually agreed upon that learing is best effective when it involves learners' motivation and action. Also, what learners (are expected to) do in the real world sets up crucial criteria for learning. When computer technologies in education frequently involve non-traditional educational boundaries like immediate input from the real world, a good taxonomy of educational technology calls for easeness of clarification and inclusiveness of technology application. In that sense, construcing a taxonomy reflective of human learning in relation to using computer technology as media is timely and welcomed since it allows all users to identify and optimize their own use. On the other hand, considering multifaceted and crossdisciplinary uses of computer technology, a taxonomy whose consensus from users upon categorization varies (but still powerful and useful) should be carefully used. I believe that categorizing educational technology as media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression is extremely powerful in that it covers the most occurrences of educational use of computer technology. The taxonomy, however, can be disadvantage especially in the area of second/foreign language learning. It is so because currently dominant Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory unfailingly mandates to involve linguistic, strategic, interactive, discoursal, and social competence. Activities or prompts given on language related sites seem to cause difficulty in deciding where to fit a website in among the above four subcategories. Rather, most of such sites seem to belong to "any" depending upon an emphasis that a user put. Websites maintained by ES/FL teachers well-support such claim. Dave's ESL Cafe is one of the most accessed sites by students and teachers. From learners' perspective, it is mostly used for inqury, however, can be accepted as media for either communication, expression, or construction because the site provides type-in fields and 'thread' based communication by adding information that learners, teachers, and the site host chip in. More specifically, I can ask, communicate with other users/the site developer, construct the site indirectly by 'worth' postings, and express my ideas. One might oppose saying that the primary goal of the site is Question and Answers, thus it belongs to Inquiry. By contributing information, however, the site can be used for other purposes than inquiry. Therefore, any language learning related website I believe should better be defined by language learning specific factors such as media for learning language forms, use, process, and alternative ways of face to face communication, etc.